Notes
Notes are the basic elements you see in written music. They are always located on a staff. The types of notes determines the length of a sound, not the type of sound. For example, a quarter note produces a single beat in music. There are many, possibly endless, types of notes. Note parts There are three basic parts of notes; the head, the stem, and the flag. The head usually looks like an eclipse or a circle, either shaded or white with a black outline. Some notes consist of only a head. The stem, which looks like a vertical line, is attached at the end and the side of a head on some notes. Stem are usually seven bars and lines across from the head to the other end. Only the position of a note on a staff can determine the position of the head alongside the stem. If the note is in the top half of the staff, the head is on the top and right side of the stem. If the note is in the bottom half, then the head is on the bottom and left side of the stem. Some notes, like the quarter and half notes, only have a stem and a head. And the flag, located on short value notes, are attached at the opposite end of the head and always the right side of the stem. The number of flags acts as an exponent of the number 2 and divides a beat into halves (e.g., an eighth note equals half a beat and has one flag). Note types and Note values A beat is a single unit of sound length of a note. The tempo of a song tells how fast a song goes, thus determines the length of a beat. Different notes have different number of beats. To start off, people usually give off a set of beats you can make by saying "1&2&3&4&" in which each time you say #&, in a constant duration of time, you give off a beat. The most common note, the quarter note, has a measure of one beat. It has a shaded head and a stem. In this case you'll say "1&". A half note, which has a white head and a stem, has a value of two beats. In this case you'll say "1&2&". A whole note has a value of four beats. It contains only a white head. In this case you'll say "1&2&3&4&". So as you know, one half note is equal to two quarter notes, one whole note is equal to two half notes, and four quarter notes equal to one whole note. However two quarter notes sounds out two separate beats "1& 2&", while a half note plays a single constant sound that's equal two beats "1&2&". The same goes for all set of notes that have equal value. Flags and short beats Any notes with a value shorter than one beat has a shaded head, a stem, and also flags. Flags on a note resemble a pennant or a long triangle. Some people prefer to called them hooks because sometimes the flags look like hooks. There are eighth notes, sixteenth notes, thirty-second notes, sixty-fourth notes, etc. If you know math, the number of flags as an exponent of 2 and multiplied by 4 represent the #th note name and the number of flags as a negative exponent of 2 determines the fraction of a beat. In other words eighth notes have one flag and ½ beats "1 ", and sixteenth notes have 2 flags and ¼ beats "1- ". Beamed notes As classified in "1 & 2 & " for up to two beats, whenever short notes are right next to each other on a staff , the flags are connected to each other in the form of a beam that crosses alongside the top of each stem of the notes and the ends are connected to the stem of the outer notes. The beam is located at the same spot of the highest or lowest note flag(s), even if some note stems are shorter. Also due to the differences between the number of flags of different notes, they may be connected by a single beam on top, but a short note containing a different value would have its other flag(s) displayed as a short beam within the range of notes. These notes have the shortest flags. For example an eighth note "1" and two sixteenth notes "1- 1- " would have a beam running across the top of each note and a second beam running across only the two sixteenth notes. But if it is only one sixteenth note, the second beam remains short to signify that it's a sixteenth note. Dotted notes Whenever notes are to have a slightly longer beat, a dot is added directly to the right side of the head of a note. The dot adds half the number of beats of the original note making it a dotted note. For example, a half note has two beats "1&2&", but a dotted half note has three beats "1&2&3&". A quarter note has one beat "1&", but a dotted quarter note has one and a half beats "1&2". But if the value of a dot is half the original notes, two or more dots added to the note have a value of half of the previous dot and is added. Therefore two dots add ¾ the beats of the original note. The value of dotted notes is calculated similar to the flag value of short notes, except 3 divided by the number of dots multiplied by 2 determines the amount of beats added to the note. Long notes Long notes are usually found on measures with 8 or more beats each. Long notes have different appearances than regular and short notes. A double whole note make out two symbols. One looks like a whole note, but they have one or two vertical lines on its side. Another looks like a parallel double beam with a vertical line running on the side, which stretches from the first to the last spaces on a staff. The double rest is a square that lays on the top second space on the staff. Rests Rests are elements used in placement of notes when they are not played in a staff. Each type of rest goes with each type of note and also corresponds to the length of silence as the length of its note. Unlike notes, the rests are positioned the same way in a staff. The quarter rest resemble somewhat like a hook on a crotchet and is, from top to bottom, positioned from the first and last space in a staff. A half rest is just a small rectangle hanging from the second line from the top of the staff. A whole rest is also a small rectangle, but sits on top of the middle line in the staff. And an eighth rest resembles a branch with little leaves. Just like flags, short rests have one or more leaves that corresponds to its note.